Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich tells Newsmax that the worst case scenario for the Middle East is a nuclear-armed Iran that would attack Israel and lead to a second Holocaust — and an “utter and total disaster” for the entire region.
And he warns that Iran and Islamic radicals, unlike the Soviet Union, will not hesitate to use nuclear weapons if they obtain them.
Gingrich served in the House for 20 years and was the chief architect of the GOP’s Contract with America in 1994. His latest book is “Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous with Destiny.”
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In a wide-ranging, hard-hitting interview with Newsmax.TV on Friday, the Georgia Republican also said:
- Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has drawn a “line in the sand” against public sector union members whose supporters are “reactionaries that are opposing change.”
- Obama administration officials would be committing a felony if they continue to implement Obamacare after the House defunds it.
- The most important factor in ousting Obama from the White House in 2012 will be “clarity” about his radical values.
- Gingrich will decide in the next week or two if he will seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.
In his exclusive interview, Gingrich was asked why he has called Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s fight against public sector unions one of the most important struggles in modern America.
“President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, one of the leading liberal Democrats of the 20th century, always said there should not be government employee unions, because it’s inherently contradictory to be a public servant and to negotiate against the public,” Gingrich responds.
“What you are seeing is the culmination of that.
“The real problem with union organization in the end isn’t money, it’s work rules. It’s the inability for example in schools to have merit pay. It’s the difficulty in getting rid of somebody who isn’t doing a good job.
“Scott Walker, when he was the county executive in Milwaukee County, I think came to realize that until you got to a situation where you did not have to negotiate with union leadership every time you wanted more efficiency, more productivity, you wouldn’t be able to deal with the budget crisis we’re in. And that is why he has really drawn a line in the sand.
“He campaigned on this. The Republicans won the governorship, 60 percent of the state legislature on this issue. So the people of Wisconsin have made a decision. It’s the demonstrators who are frankly being anti-democratic.”
Referring to the phone call a liberal blogger made to Gov. Walker pretending to be a major GOP contributor, Gingrich asserts: “It tells you how underhanded and how desperate opponents of change are.
“These are reactionaries defending the old order. Some of them are ideological, some are interest groups, some of them are partisan. They collectively represent the new reactionaries that are opposing change.”
Gingrich called Obama’s policy regarding the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East “very strange.”
“If you’re an American ally like Mubarak and you sided with the United States for 30 years, President Obama’s quick to publicly dump you. If you’re an American enemy like Colonel Gadhafi and have been our enemy for 40 years, and now have been publicly implicated as the person who ordered the bombing of the Pan American airplane, somehow the president can’t find a way to explain clearly that you ought to leave.
“I think the United States should be in favor of freedom. It’s who we are. We should be in favor of freedom in Libya, in Saudi Arabia, in Iran, in China, in North Korea. We have to say over and over again that we believe these dictatorships in the long run need to disappear and be replaced by the rule of law.”
Asked if the Obama administration is dropping the ball on this, Gingrich says: “I’m not even sure they know there is a ball.”
As for the worst case and best case scenarios for the Middle East, Gingrich tells Newsmax: “The worst case scenario is a nuclear war. If the Iranians get nuclear weapons — well, people who are prepared to put on a body bomb to walk into a mall and kill themselves, and kill you, are probably prepared to use a nuclear weapon. This is not the Soviet Union. This is not détente.
“So the worst scenario in the Middle East is a substantial nuclear war that from the standpoint of Israel would be a second Holocaust, and from the standpoint of the whole region would be an utter and total disaster, and from the standpoint of the human race would be horrifying.
“The best outcome is that the forces of hatred are defeated, that moderates and reasonable people come to power and the region learns to live in peace and seek prosperity by cooperating with each other.”
Turning to Obama’s healthcare reform legislation, Gingrich says: “I think they should have a vote on cutting off all funding. The House has already passed repeal of Obamacare. I think with the judge having ruled the entire bill unconstitutional there are solid grounds for the House to cut off all funding for implementation. I think the House should be very aggressive in defunding Obamacare until we get to a point where we can repeal all of it.”
Asked if implementing an unconstitutional law is possibly an impeachable act, Gingrich responds: “Not if the Congress pays for it. That’s why cutting off the funding changes the whole equation. Once you cut off the funding it would be illegal to implement it.
“When the Congress cuts off the funding, which is a legitimate part of our constitutional process, whether it’s liberals doing it or conservatives doing it, the president has an obligation to respect the Congress’ right to decide whether or not to spend money, and that’s central to the balance of powers.”
If Obama did continue to implement the healthcare reform after funding is cut “you would have a real crisis because then he would be asking all of his appointees to break the law, to commit a felony. To spend money that Congress hasn’t appropriated means they’re personally liable to pay it back.
“On Obamacare the logical next step is to cut off all the money, refuse to hire the new bureaucrats, and then watch it basically collapse of its own weight.”
Gingrich sees strength in Obama’s potential GOP opponents in 2012, including Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin.
“Governor Romney has a great business background and experience running companies,” he says. “Governor Huckabee was a very effective governor of Arkansas and a very effective candidate in 2008. Governor Palin has a very passionate following, people who like her style and like her clarity.
“The candidates will be a collection of people who are going to be very impressive and they’re all going to have positive things to say.”
As for his own decision on whether to seek the nomination, Gingrich tells Newsmax: “I think in the next couple of weeks [wife] Callista and I will end up making a decision along with our family, at which point if we do decide to run we’ll announce an exploratory committee. We’re still a week or two away from it.
“We’re certainly actively exploring it. We’re looking at whether or not we could be effective in communicating a set of ideas and values that would enable the country to fix itself. I don’t think any one person can fix this country, but I think leadership could help the entire country fix itself.”
Asked what it will take to beat Obama, Gingrich responds with one word: “Clarity.”
He adds: “This is the most radical president in American history. His values are about a 19 or 20 percent minority of the country. He has the highest unemployment rate for a continuing period of time of any president since Franklin Roosevelt and the Great Depression. He is dangerous in foreign policy because of the level of confusion in his team.
“I think what you need is a candidate on the Republican side who can reach out to moderates, and frankly to Democrats.
“When you have an absolute failure to understand the need to get power out of Washington, when you have a president who encourages gangs in Madison [Wisconsin] and encourages demonstrations as though he were a community activist, I think you should be able to draw a very clear choice.
“Whoever the Republican nominee is their first goal should be to calmly, pleasantly, happily offer the American people a dramatically better future the day after the election, just as Reagan did with Jimmy Carter in 1980.
“Reagan didn’t campaign negatively, he campaigned happily. He used to say if your brother-in-law loses his job it’s called a recession. If you lose your job it’s called a depression. If Jimmy Carter loses his job it’s called a recovery. We ought to have the same happy attitude.
“We are at the edge of a breakout where America will be the most prosperous, the most successful, the safest, and the freest country in the world. We just have to get rid of the people who don’t get it.”
Gingrich says his book “Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous with Destiny,” published as America marks the 100th anniversary of Reagan’s birth, is a “unique introduction both for folks who lived through that period and look back fondly, but also for example for grandparents to give to their grandchildren and say this is an historic figure, this is what he did to defeat the Soviet Empire.
“This is what it’s like to have a great leader.”
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